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TOT 205-WEEK 205
“LESS IS MORE”.
( Note: The objective of this weekly blog is to assist the trainers giving training in mediation in strengthening their skills).
One of the guiding principles in training is “ Less is More”.
Many trainers have lost their credibility in their enthuse to give more and more inputs to the trainees, beyond the level of comprehension of the trainees.
The objective of the training is not to exhibit how much the trainer knows. No successful training can be a trainer centred training.
The success of any training is dependent on how much the trainees have been able to understand , inculcate and implement.
No one can make others understand what one has not understood.
It is in this context overloading the slides, PPTs with more and more information on any topic/sub topic etc , will have to be seriously avoided. When the slides are overloaded trainees may get a feeling of suffocation. Added to this, if the trainer goes on explaining everything that is displayed, it would be too much for the trainees to handle.
Content management includes the following principles:-
a)“ What Content needs to be given” ?
b)How much of content can be given ?
c)How much of content can be considered manageable by the trainees in each session?
Let us consider the following strange analogy :-
- Imagine you are in the process of cooking. You overload the mixer, and do not fix it well. You press the button. Everything overflows. Your kitchen slab, wall, floor, the mixer, everything gets dirty . By the time you get things straight, your enthusiasm to cook no more stays with you. The guest who sees the whole mess loses his interest in eating what ever you have offered thereafter.
- You are watching a guy picking up everything more and more from a widespread buffet, and gulping it fast , in order to see to it that he does not miss out anything that is being served. Minutes after finishing his eating process, he starts puking. You see him puking , and , several things coming out of his mouth . You see everything floating in the wash basin.
( The guy in the example could be a trainee… and could also be a trainer).
By imagining this scene.. are you feeling that such a thing is “disgusting” even to imagine.
This strong example is given only to draw the attention of the potential trainers/ trainers , who are fascinated about collecting materials from here and there and over loading their slides, and further over burdening the trainees with things which after a certain point do not carry any value at all.
“A wealth of information creates poverty of attention.”
Herbert A Simon- Pioneer of Artificial Intelligence.
(All copyrights reserved by the author S.Susheela).
Training of Trainers in Mediation 